LETTER: Tourism sector has improved despite government

Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu called a media conference last week to brag about how well our tourism sector is recovering.  Indeed, this is good news. However, I was shocked to see Sisulu taking credit for this improvement.

In the first six months of the year inbound tourism has grown 147%, which translates to a remarkable 2,2-million plus international arrivals. South Africans also ensured they enjoyed our beautiful country, with domestic tourism increasing by 23,8% (or 15,2-million trips) compared with the same period in 2021.

But the truth is that the tourism and allied sectors are improving despite this government, not because of it. It is thanks to the private sector (the same private sector this government so despises) and its resilience and determination that has ensured this growth.

I find it amazing that the Ramaphosa government thinks the public has already forgotten how it single-handedly decimated the tourism, travel, entertainment and hospitality sectors. People have not forgotten how in the first year of the job-killing lockdown alone, at least 500,000 jobs were shed. 

We have not forgotten the illogical regulations and extended travel bans imposed domestically and internationally, even as other countries opened up their tourism sector. This government’s uncertain changes to its illogical regulations ensured that we remained on the “red list” of our biggest tourism markets for months. 

This is not to mention government’s inability to deal with crime and security, putting many potential tourists  off from coming to our shores. Nor the KwaZulu-Natal riots of July 2021 that made international news, further discouraging international and even domestic tourism.

The list goes on. In March 2021, when the Tourism Business Council of SA addressed the tourism portfolio committee in parliament, it quite rightly bemoaned that PCR tests were still mandatory when most countries had already forgotten about them.

The National Public Transport Regulator has not issued permits for years now and, as a result, a substantial number of people have been forced to leave the tourism sector. Sports lovers have also not forgotten that not even six months ago we could not watch sports live in a stadium.

Air licensing remains backlogged and, thanks to Sisulu and her colleagues, Comair has had to close shop. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What a cheek that Sisulu could even consider taking credit for the latest tourism statistics when it is blatantly obvious that she had nothing to do with it. We are not that ignorant.

Manny de Freitas, MP
DA shadow tourism minister

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